dual booting osx/win7 on a macbook


  1. Posts : 2
    win7/xp/osx
       #1

    dual booting osx/win7 on a macbook


    hi all,

    i imagine i've got a bit of a unique situation, but hopefully one of you might be able to point me in the right direction

    i've got a macbook running win7, and i want to dualboot it and get osx back on there. should be easy, osx on a macbook, right? **** me.

    i did a bit of homework first, and reviewed what other people have done for dualbooting, but all of the threads are ancient and address different specific issues

    so here are the steps i went through:

    -created a second partition in win7, ntfs, made it active
    -rebooted with an authentic osx snow leopard disc
    -osx installation startup began
    -went into disk utility to format it to "journalled" and get this error:
    "Volume Erase failed with the error: Could not modify partition map"

    it won't let you install until the disk is formatted correctly...any ideas guys? any help would be huge

    thanks!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,607
    Windows 7 x64 finally!
       #2

    Hi Crackkadillicus, and welcome to the forums
    You can't get much dumber than me when it comes to Mac, but I think you need a different format than ntfs, don't you? GUID I think? And I have seen you need at least 6.5G
    I found this tutorial from Apple: "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume..." alert in Installer
    I hope it helps
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 15
    Windows 7 Pro 32 bit
       #3

    I had the same problem about 4-5 months when i had XP and i was trying to dual-boot Windows 7( luckily i have 2 hard-drives so i did format). I dont realy know much about Mac-s, but here's what you ll do:
    1) Install osx
    2) install Windows 7
    3) Then under of Windows 7, install EasyBCD EasyBCD - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
    then next go to
    4)Add/Remove Entries and choose Mac, and then choose from the list iMac/Macbook. Click Add Entry
    5) Go to Manage bootloader and click on the Write MBR button.
    Restart
    and after that when u turn on your computer you will see automatically every time bootmanager (osx and windows 7)
    i hope it helped you :)

    (ofc you ll need 2 partition for that)
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2
    win7/xp/osx
    Thread Starter
       #4

    hi, thanks for the suggestions

    maybe i wasn't too clear about my problem - the issue i'm having is in reformatting the partitioned drive

    i'm following loosely the guide found here, and garnering information from wherever i can...

    so i can partition the drive, and according to everything i can see so far, the initial drive type (fat32 vs ntfs) shouldn't matter as i'm trying to reformat it with osx's disk utility - but i can't modify it from there. is there a way maybe to partition a drive and format it to Mac osx Journaled from win7?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1
    Windows 7
       #5

    I am in the exact same boat as you crackadillicus! I can't get past this dreaded "can't modify partition map" message either!

    Did you ever figure it out? Anyone else?
      My Computer


 

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